Staying in the hunt for a spot in the College Football Playoff will be the focus for both teams when No. 13 Wake Forest squares off with SMU in a crucial late-season Atlantic Coast Conference clash on Saturday in Dallas.
Wake Forest climbed three spots in the latest CFP rankings released on Tuesday.
The Demon Deacons (8-1, 5-1 ACC) are on pace for a rematch with No. 7 Miami in the conference championship game while SMU (7-2, 5-2) will need to win out and get some help from other ACC teams to keep its league title hopes alive. Wake Forest has three games left in conference play while the Mustangs have two — as well as a road game against No. 5 Notre Dame on Nov. 21.
The Demon Deacons head to Big D after a dominating 77-0 home, nonconference win over Merrimack on Nov. 7. Backup quarterback Steele Pizzella amassed 495 combined passing and rushing yards in just a half of action in the win, becoming the first FBS quarterback this season to pass for over 400 yards and three touchdowns in a half.
Pizzella made his first start in a college game with regular starter Gio Lopez on the shelf with a knee injury. Lopez is being eased back into action and is expected to be ready for the matchup with SMU.
“We’re excited about getting (Lopez) back into practice,” Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert said. “It’ll be in a big fashion but more limited than every rep. But we’ll build that up all the way through the week, and I think he’ll be ready to go.”
Wake Forest has captured six straight games after its only loss of the year, a 33-20 setback at home against Miami on Sept. 12. In the half-dozen contests since, the Demon Deacons have outscored their opponents 294-58 and allowed more than 14 points just once.
“I’ll say it every week: there’s a clear path (to the CFP), Dickert said. “There are no style points this time of year, it’s just winning and losing. Our guys just need to stay in the present. We’ve got to understand a little bit of what’s at stake, but also (realize) what it takes, consistently, to finish November the way we all want to.”
The Mustangs return to the field on the heels of a 51-28 home win over Virginia Tech on Nov. 6 as SMU rebounded from a last-minute 30-27 loss at Syracuse on Oct. 31.
Kevin Jennings passed for 350 yards and four touchdowns in the win over Virginia Tech as SMU scored 24 straight points beginning late in the second quarter, built a 30-point lead and then held off a late Hokies charge. Three of Jennings’ TDs and 103 of his yards were produced on six passes to Yamir Knight.
SMU is 12-0 in home ACC games since joining the league for the 2025 campaign. The Mustangs finish their season with a stretch — Wake Forest, at No. 5 Notre Dame and at Stanford — that coach Rhett Lashlee calls “the most difficult of the year.”
“It’s November — there’s an old college football saying, ‘people remember November,'” Lashlee explained. “It’s true. We just talked about, ‘guys, the time’s now.’
“We’ve done a lot of good things this year, but we have not played our best game. So time’s kind of now. There’s no more time to think about it. You’ve got to respond after wins too, right? I mean, we know what’s in front of us.”